The Unfinished Nation A Concise History of the American People

by Brinkley, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780073406985
• ISBN10: 0073406988
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-01-03
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education

Summary

Known for its clear narrative voice and impeccable scholarship, Alan Brinkley's best-selling program for the U.S. survey course invites students to think critically about the many forces that continually create the Unfinished Nation that is the United States. In a concise but wide-ranging narrative, Brinkley shows the diversity and complexity of the nation and our understanding of its history--one that continues to evolve both in the events of the present and in our reexamination of new evidence and perspectives on the past. This edition features a series of Patterns of Popular Culture essays, as well as expanded coverage of pre-Columbian America, new America in the World essays, and updated coverage of recent events and developments that demonstrates how a new generation continues to shape the American story.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Collision of Cultures

America Before Columbus

Europe Looks Westward

The Arrival of the English

Debating the Past: The American Population Before Columbus

America in the World: The Atlantic Context of Early American History

America in the World: Mercantilism and Colonial Commerce

Consider the Source: Bartolome de las Casas, "Of the Island of Hispaniola"

Chapter 2: Transplantations and Borderlands

The Early Chesapeake

The Growth of New England

The Restoration Colonies

Borderlands and Middle Grounds

The Development of Empire

Debating the Past: Native Americans and "The Middle Ground"

Consider the Source: Cotton Mather on the Recent History of New England

Chapter 3: Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Population

The Colonial Economies

Patterns of Society

Awakenings and Enlightenments

Debating the Past: The Origins of Slavery

Debating the Past: The Witchcraft Trials

Consider the Source: Gottlieb Mittleburger, the Passage of Indentured Servants

Chapter 4: The Empire in Transition

Loosening Ties

The Struggle for the Continent

The New Imperialism

Stirrings of Revolt

Cooperation and War

America in the World: The First Global War

Patterns of Popular Culture: Taverns in Revolutionary Massachusetts

Consider the Source: Benjamin Franklin, Testimony against the Stamp Act

Chapter 5: The American Revolution

The States United

The War for Independence

War and Society

The Creation of State Governments

The Search for a National Government

Debating the Past: The American Revolution

America in the World: The Age of Revolutions

Consider the Source: Abigail Adams discusses women’s rights

Chapter 6: The Constitution and the New Republic

Framing a New Government

Adoption and Adaptation

Federalists and Republicans

Establishing National Sovereignty

The Downfall of the Federalists

Debating the Past: The Background of the Constitution

Consider the Source: Washington’s Farewell Address

Chapter 7: The Jeffersonian Era

The Rise of Cultural Nationalism

Stirrings of Industrialism

Jefferson the President

Doubling the National Domain

Expansion and War

The War of 1812

America in the World: The Global Industrial Revolution

Patterns of Popular Culture: Horse Racing

Consider the Source: Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, June 1803

Chapter 8: Varieties of American Nationalism

Stabilizing Economic Growth

Expanding Westward

The "Era of Good Feelings"

Sectionalism and Nationalism

The Revival of Opposition

Consider the Source: Thomas Jefferson Reacts to the Missouri Compromise

Chapter 9: Jacksonian America

The Rise of Mass Politics

"Our Federal Union"

The Removal of the Indians

Jackson and the Bank War

The Changing Tale of American Politics

Politics After Jackson

Debating the Past: Jacksonian Democracy

Patterns of Popular Culture: The Penny Press

Consider the Source: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Chapter 10: America's Economic Revolution

The Changing American Population

Transportation and Communications Revolutions

Commerce and Industry

Men and Women at Work

Patterns of Society

The Agricultural North

Patterns of Popular Culture: Shakespeare in America

Consider the Source: The Baltimore Patriot Supports Government Regulation of Telegraphy

Chapter 11: Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South

The Cotton Economy

Southern White Society

Slavery: The "Peculiar Institution"

The Culture of Slavery

Debating the Past: The Character of Slavery

Consider the Source: Senator James Henry Hammond Declares “Cotton Is King”

Chapter 12: Antebellum Culture and Reform

The Romantic Impulse

Remaking Society

The Crusade Against Slavery

America in the World: The Abolition of Slavery

Consider the Source: Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Fall, NY, 1848

Chapter 13: The Impending Crisis

Looking Westward

Expansion and War

The Sectional Debate

The Crisis of the 1850s

Consider the Source: Wilmot Proviso to the Northwest Ordinance, 1846

Chapter 14: The Civil War

The Secession Crisis

The Mobilization of the North

The Mobilization of the South

Strategy and Diplomacy

Campaigns and Battles

Debating the Past: The Causes of the Civil War

Patterns of Popular Culture: Baseball and the Civil War

Consider the Source:

Chapter 15: Reconstruction and the New South

The Problems of Peacemaking

Radical Reconstruction

The South in Reconstruction

The Grant Administration

The Abandonment of Reconstruction

The New South

Debating the Past: Reconstruction

Consider the Source: Southern Blacks Ask for Help

Chapter 16: The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West

The Changing Western Economy

The Romance of the West

The Dispersal of the Tribes

The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer

Debating the Past: The Frontier and the West

Consider the Source: Walter Baron von Richthofen, Cattle Raising on the Plains in North America

Chapter 17: Industrial Supremacy

Sources of Industrial Growth

Capitalism and Its Critics

The Ordeal of the Worker

Patterns of Popular Culture: The Novels of Horatio Alger

Consider the Source: Andrew Carnegie Explains the Gospel of Wealth, 1889

Chapter 18: The Age of the City

The New Urban Growth

The Urban Landscape

Strains of Urban Life

The Rise of Mass Consumption

Leisure in the Consumer Society

High Culture in the Urban Age

America in the World: Global Migrations

Consider the Source: John Wanamaker, The Four Cardinal Points of the Department Store, 1911

Chapter 19: From Crisis to Empire

The Politics of Equilibrium

The Agrarian Revolt

The Crisis of the 1890s

Stirrings of Imperialism

War with Spain

The Republic as Empire

Debating the Past: Populism

America in the World: Imperialism

Consider the Source: Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League

Chapter 20: The Progressives

The Progressive Impulse

Women and Reform

The Assault on the Parties

Sources of Progressive Reform

Crusades for Order and Reform

Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency

The Troubled Succession

Woodrow Wilson and the New Freedom

Debating the Past: Progressivism

America in the World: Social Democracy

Consider the Source: Katherine Philips Edson Boasts of Women’s Influence on State Legislation, 1913

Chapter 21: America and the Great War

The "Big Stick": America and the World, 1901-1917

The Road to War

"War Without Stint"

The Search for a New World Order

A Society in Turmoil

Patterns of Popular Culture: Billy Sunday and Modern Revivalism

Consider the Source: George M. Cohan, “Over There,” 1918

Chapter 22: The New Era

The New Economy

The New Culture

A Conflict of Cultures

Republican Government

America in the World: The Cinema

Consider the Source: Black Swan Records Advertisement in the Newspaper Crisis, 1922

Chapter 23: The Great Depression

The Coming of the Depression

The American People in Hard Times

The Depression and American Culture

The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover

Debating the Past: Causes of the Great Depression

America in the World: The Global Depression

Consider the Source: Mr. Tarver Remembers the Great Depression in a 1940 Interview with the Federal Writers Project

Chapter 24: The New Deal

Launching the New Deal

The New Deal in Transition

The New Deal in Disarray

Limits and Legacies of the New Deal

Debating the Past: The New Deal

Patterns of Popular Culture: The Golden Age of Comic Books

Consider the Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Speaks on the Reorganization of the Judiciary, 1937

Chapter 25: The Global Crisis, 1921-1941

The Diplomacy of the New Era

Isolationism and Internationalism

From Neutrality to Intervention

Debating the Past: The Question of Pearl Harbor

America in the World: The Sino-Japanese War, 1931-1941

Consider the Source: Joint Statement by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, 1941

Chapter 26: America in a World at War

War on Two Fronts

The American Economy in Wartime

Race and Gender in Wartime America

Anxiety and Affluence in Wartime Culture

The Defeat of the Axis

Debating the Past: The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb

Consider the Source: Marjorie Haselton Writes Her Husband Richard in China, 1945

Chapter 27: The Cold War

Origins of the Cold War

The Collapse of the Peace

America After the War

The Korean War

The Crusade Against Subversion

Debating the Past: The Cold War

Debating the Past: McCarthyism

Consider the Source: National Security Council Paper No. 68 (NSC-68) Arms America, 1950

Chapter 28: The Affluent Society

The Economic "Miracle"

The Explosion of Science and Technology

People of Plenty

The Other Americas

The Rise of the Civil Rights Movement

Eisenhower Republicanism

Eisenhower, Dulles, and the Cold War

Patterns of Popular Culture: Lucy and Desi

Consider the Source: Eisenhower Warns of the Military Industrial Complex in His Farewell Address, 1961

Chapter 29: Civil Rights, Vietnam, and The Ordeal of Liberalism

Expanding the Liberal State

The Battle for Racial Equality

"Flexible Response" and the Cold War

The Agony of Vietnam

The Traumas of 1968

Debating the Past: The Civil Rights Movement

Debating the Past: The Vietnam Commitment

America in the World: 1968

Consider the Source: Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream”

Chapter 30: The Crisis of Authority

The Youth Culture

The Mobilization of Minorities

The New Feminism

Environmentalism in a Turbulent Society

Nixon, Kissinger, and the War

Nixon, Kissinger, and the World

Politics and Economics in the Nixon Years

The Watergate Crisis

Debating the Past: Watergate

America in the World: The End of Colonialism

Consider the Source: Demands of the New York High School Student Union, 1970

Chapter 31: From the "Age of Limits" to the Age of Reagan

Politics and Diplomacy After Watergate

The Rise of the New Conservative Movement

The "Reagan Revolution"

America and the Waning of the Cold War

Patterns of Popular Culture: The Mall

Consider the Source: James Watt, “Despite Critics, Interior Dept. Makes Rapid Progress,” Human Events, 1982

Chapter 32: The Age of Globalization

The Resurgence of Partisanship

The Economic Boom

Science and Technology in the New Economy

A Changing Society

A Contested Culture

The Perils of Globalization

America in the World: The Global Environmental Movement

Consider the Source: “Keep Foreign Terrorism Foreign,” New York Times, 1993